Disclaimer - I am not Rick Riordan :D

Chapter Twenty Four - When Swords Fly

Luckily, Percy figured he wasn't knocked out for long, because when he opened his eyes, he was still on the floor of his house, meaning no one had taken advantage of his unconsciousness to whisk him away to Timeless HQ. Which was great. But what was not great, in fact, was the fact that everything hurt, especially with the lack of adrenaline.

Hey, boss. You good?

Percy spat out a bit of blood. You think?

He groaned as he sat up, grunting at the sharp pain in his rib area. Well this sucks, he thought as he looked around at the wreckage that his house became. His eyes landed on the large body of Antaeus. In a moment of total maturity, Percy stuck his tongue out at the unconscious man. He felt the urge to shiver at the prospect that Antaeus hadn't even used an Intent and was still able to practically crush Percy with just his weight.

Percy wondered if all pro wrestlers were like that, but he somewhat doubted that.

Looking around at the mess around him, he noticed the missing presence of Riptide. "Riptide?"

Your Spiritual Energy couldn't retain my physical form while you were unconscious, master. I would ask you to rest and not Summon until you've regained some of that energy.

Percy hummed at the suggestion. "Uh, so, is Spiritual Energy sorta like Mana Points in games or something? Is there some kind of potion I can drink to replain it?"

I think you mean 'replenish' not 'replain' and no, I don't believe it's like Mana Points. I believe it's simply like your physical stamina, except spiritual, Riptide explained as Percy attempted to stretch his arms experimentally. His right arm throbbed slightly, but other than that they seemed to be in good shape.

"So Spiritual Power isn't, I don't know, eternal or something?" Percy asked, somewhat disappointed, though he should have expected that. He just assumed though that the spirit was, well, untangible so there wouldn't be a limit to it.

Didn't 'Pollo say that it depends on your physical body or something? Blackjack piped in. Percy nodded as he moved his legs; they weren't in much pain other than feeling fatigued, so that was good. That meant the only problem he had was his torso area. It felt like it had been run over by a truck, and Percy was thinking that Antaeus, being the size he was, counted as a truck.

Blackjack is correct; I don't think Spiritual Energy is limited per say, but your physical capabilities to use its vast amount of energy is limited.

"Uh, alright then," Percy said. "Duly noted." He stood, gritting his teeth at the pain shooting up through his chest. He took a deep breath in, to find that even that hurt like h*ll. It was barely bearable, and Percy really hoped he didn't have to do anything strenuous anymore, though he doubted it as Riptide's words came back to him before he fell unconscious.

He sighed, or at least sighed as best he could with probable broken ribs. "Damn, so Ethan's missing, and there's someone else hanging around here that is probably not planning to have a play date with me." He frowned. "Is that too much to hope for?"

Probably, Blackjack responded with a snort as Riptide hummed in agreement with the horse.

Percy took another look around. Where is Ethan? he wondered. The front door was closed, but that was to be expected. Would Ethan have left after seeing Percy beating Antaeus? But why did he just...disappear without a word? And who was this 'other person' that Riptide had sensed as dangerous?

The answer came in the next sentence in the form of a large BANG, resounding from somewhere at the back end of Percy's house.

"Well, that didn't sound too good; you think I should check it out?" Percy asked.

Unhelpfully, Blackjack said Yep at the same time as Riptide said No. Percy scrunched his nose at that.

"Bruh."

Blackjack explained his reasoning first, saying, Well, it's your house. You should beat whoever is messing it up!

Riptide snorted (oh gods she snorted, Percy thought, amused). Yes, and master is definitely in the right shape to 'beat whoever' up indeed.

Was that sarcasm? Blackjack asked incredulously. Boss, Sword Lady just used sarcasm.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm going to have to agree with Sword Lady on this one, bud. I'm a bit tired right now; I'd rather chill and wait than go running straight into danger." Especially since I just got out of a dangerous situation with a thread of my life, was left unsaid but not unheard. Blackjack relented with a sigh, but ultimately agreed that that was probably the smarter idea.

Percy was all aboard the 'rest till trouble eventually finds him' train, until he heard a yell of pain. And the voice's familiarity had Percy's body freezing.

"That was Jason," Percy muttered and literally went f*ck it and ran toward trouble. Usually, he'd say he didn't look for trouble and trouble would find him, but this time, he wouldn't be able to use that argument because he was running straight at it. Though, it was only after three seconds that he was heaving and hurting because of his damn ribs.

As he went closer and closer to the back of his house, the sounds of grunting and a fight were becoming apparent, not to mention, it was getting darker. I guess I never came to the back of the house, he thought as he flicked a light on and put his hand out as he continued moving forward, eyes flicking between two doors in front of him. He flicked his finger like he would flick a pen, and in a flash of blue light, Riptide sheened bright blue in the dim lighting of the hallway.

Percy heard the sound of voices and his eyes moved to the right door. Purple and gold light clashed and filtered from under the crack of the door. Percy wasted no time in swinging it open as hard and fast as he could.

"Jaso-"

"BEHIND YOU!" and while Percy wasn't really sure who said that, and to whom it was said (not to mention, he couldn't see because his eyes were assaulted by the sudden blinding purple and yellow flashes of Intents), Percy instinctively whipped around with Riptide and heard a loud resonating CLANG as his blade hit another.

"You're stronger than Kronos thought," Ethan muttered as Percy's vision cleared. Percy grit his teeth but managed a grin.

"Thanks; I live to impress," Percy quipped before shoving against Ethan's blade (not an Intent, Percy noted, but a sword, like one you would find in a medieval convention) putting Ethan off balance for a short moment, that moment which Percy took to swing toward Ethan's arm in an attempt to disarm him. Unexpectedly, Ethan was able to move quick enough to block, to which Percy realized I'm not the only one training with the sword, but he could feel the unease and the awkwardness in Ethan's move from the times when their blades would clash, sending sparks.

Change of plans, Percy thought as he took short notice of Jason's whereabouts and who he was fighting, only for his eyes to widen in shock as his eyes met Luke's for a brief second. Percy ripped his eyes away, and instead focused on the problem in front of him right now: Eyepatch Dude.

In one second, he found himself on Ethan's blind side, Riptide twisting in his hand so that the blade was coming out from the opposite of the conventional way, and in the next second he gripped Ethan's shoulder and slammed the pummel of his blade into the back of his head, effectively knocking him out (to which Percy would admit that he was relieved that all Timeless weren't like Antaeus).

As Ethan crumpled to the floor, Percy whirled around, chest heaving painfully as he blinked away sudden black spots that assaulted his vision. He wasn't swaying on his feet, but he wondered how close he was to do just that, maybe even collapsing.

He doubted fighting with broken ribs was very healthy. Not to mention his head was starting to hurt like crazy and he was starting to feel nauseous as well. Maybe he had a concussion. Huzzah to that.

Perhaps you should -

Stop? And leave my friend to fend for himself? Percy finished for Riptide. I don't think so. His eyes found Jason and Luke, and the fight was terribly one sided. The two were fighting hand to hand, and Percy wasn't too sure, but Luke was probably more experienced judging from the way his punches came one after another while Jason's, though strong and straight, were getting sloppier.

Not to mention he looked pretty beat. Quickly assessing the situation, thank his ADHD, (to his right, a big-a$$ gold snake was being stomped on by a purple horse, but it also kept wrapping itself around the horse's leg; Percy decided he wasn't looking to get involved in that fight. He looked at Jason and Luke and watched as Jason took a painful hit to his stomach, causing him to fall, but he grabbed Luke's shirt and soon both were on the floor).

Taking the chance, Percy bit back his urge to ease his own pain, and ran forward to Luke who had his back to Percy and while Percy wasn't one for two on one fighting, he was tired, and he wasn't looking to aggravate his ribs any longer.

Luke looked up and something flashed across his face as Percy swung Riptide, only to find Luke's snake flashing gold and in a blink of an eye sinking its fangs into Percy's hand.

"Gah-" Percy jerked his hand back as the serpent let go and slithered around Luke, in what would have been a protective manner had its eyes not been so...empty. Percy gripped his hand, gritting his teeth as his fingers numbed and lost feel, Riptide clattering. Poison...? Percy wondered as he felt the numbness reaching his elbow.

"Percy! Luke, you-" Jason was interrupted as Luke punched him in the gut again, causing him to hack and cough and fall silent. Luke turned to Percy who started to really sway. His ears started to ring for whatever reason, and as Luke spoke, it sounded like he was underwater.

Luke observed Percy with an unworried look. "I'm surprised. Kronos did well to send Antaeus, though, as I predicted, you would make it out victorious." He sighed, as Percy felt something rise into his throat. Bile. His body arched forward as the contents from that morning poured out his mouth, mixed with red liquid Percy didn't want to think too much about.

It left him with a bad taste in his mouth as well as immense pain to his abused ribs, causing him to momentarily black out from the intensity of it. When his vision cleared, he was on the floor with Luke looming over him, cold eyes in his blue, shattered eyes, so so so unlike the Luke of his friend group. No. This was Luke of the Timeless.

He had the eyes of a killer, and it scared Percy more than Antaeus ever could. Maybe it was because this was someone he used to think of as a friend. Maybe it was because of the way his snake hissed in the background, or maybe it was the faint glow of his eyes that made it terrifying.

Whatever it was, Percy wanted out.

Luke glanced to the side where Percy thought he saw his puke at. "I suppose Antaeus didn't leave you unscathed though." He gestured to his snake, now slithering around his arm and torso. "Cass here's poison's just numbing agent. It wouldn't have caused blood to be in your vomit, much less make you vomit. Though I guess it does momentarily cut off your ability to Summon or Release."

"F*ck you, Luke," Percy managed, glaring, as his vision swam. He heard a distant voice, no, voices, calling out to him, and he wondered vaguely if numbing poison caused auditory hallucinations too. Percy tried to move, but true to what Luke said, his whole right side was starting to get numb.

"I have to say," Luke went on, entirely ignoring Percy. "You dispatched Ethan pretty easily with blood spit-inducing injuries; you're more skilled than I thought, Perce." Luke crouched, gold and blue glows clashing on his face as he gazed down at Percy. "We'll get you patched up back at HQ, Jason as well, since both of you are Olympians. Important. Vital. Useful. A table turner, even." Blue light pulsed as Luke stood to stretch his back.

"Well, I suppose I'll call for backup to pick us up, before Annabeth gets any suspicions." Luke paused when he heard the sound of sirens in the distance. Too far, really, for Percy's comfort. "And before the cops arrive. I guess Annabeth did catch on to something after all and called the police. I suppose you never underestimate Chase, am I right?" Neither Percy nor Jason responded at that.

Percy had mixed feelings about Annabeth at the moment. There was a side of him that wanted her to come and save their sorry a$$es, but at the same time, he didn't want her to come because Luke didn't seem like an easy opponent, much less he seemed pretty merciless with how he treated Jason, someone he's supposedly known for quite a while.

Luke pulled his phone out, a phone that was covered in a hard, thick-a looking case, which would explain how it was still intact - maybe Percy should've thought of that too - and dialed a number as he Released his snake - Cass - the snake disappearing in a flash of gold, leaving only blue. Percy wondered what happened to Jason's purple horse, but noted that Jason looked pretty unconscious. His horse must've disappeared after that.

What a dark room, Percy noted, slightly deliriously. Without all the lights, it's so dim, and blue...

The voices were getting a bit louder, Percy realized. The blue light seemed to pulse in Percy's blurring vision, and he wondered if he was hallucinating yet again.

-aster!

Excuse me? Did someone just call me an a$$-er? Percy thought incredulously. In this situation, he wouldn't be calling himself the a$$, he'd be calling Luke the a$$.

MASTER!

BOSS!

Percy's eyes shot open with sudden clarity as his foggy head cleared. His body tingled with numbness, all throughout at this point, but he was starting to feel again. That poison didn't last very long, he thought warily as he stayed where he was, still really unable to do much. He watched Luke from his peripheral as the guy made a call.

Hey y'all, I'm back from Poison Ville, Percy said to Blackjack and Riptide. Ya miss me much?

Boss, Lady Sword has an idea, but we gotta ask if you're good with it.

Uh, Percy said smartly. Any plan is a plan, am I right? What is it?

Riptide voiced her thoughts, and Percy noted her glow coming from somewhere behind his turned head, so he wouldn't be able to reach her position the way he was now. I can move on my own, and I can knock Luke out on your command. Percy's eyes widened at that.

Hold up, so you're saying, you can move 'round however you like, but you never told me!? Percy asked incredulously.

...I assumed you knew, since that is how we first met, Riptide responded, her voice practically having a raised brow of its own. Percy thought back to their first encounter and realized that, yes, Riptide had been floating around at the time. Damn, he thought. I'm literally an idiot.

Okay, well, knock that phone outta his hand and give it to me, Percy decided. Riptide was silent for a moment, and Percy wondered why, but she answered before he could ask.

While I can knock the phone out, I do not have hands to grab it and give it to you, and even if I did, I start to doubt your priorities. I believe the best course of action is if I were to knock him out. You can grab the phone after that.

Oh. Percy struggled to frown. His face was still sorta numb, so it wasn't quite moving as it should. He idly heard Luke say something to someone - Heeb? Something like that - and he quickly reprimanded Riptide. Makes sense. Why didn't he think of that? Maybe he was still slightly delirious. Just...knock him out or something then.

...Of course. And with that, Percy watched as Luke turned away slightly, seemingly complaining about something to the other person on the phone, and the blue lighting shifted ever so slightly with the soft sound of scraping. Luke noticed it, but he noticed it too late as Riptide in a streak of blue in the dark room, zipped forward and hit Luke dab smack in the throat with her pummel, leaving him coughing and eyes looking around confused, phone falling out of his hand.

Oh, nice bonus, Percy noted as Riptide continued her assault with a rapid hit from her hilt to the base of Luke's skull.

"Wh- stupid sword -" Luke's voice was cut off as he crumpled to the floor, unmoving. Percy let out a breath of relief, and found himself able to shift a bit.

"Thank the gods," he mumbled out, though it was slurred since his mouth was still sorta numb, so it sounded more like "Dnm du Zudms." Riptide huffed at Luke's form, as if to show she finally got rid of something annoying, which, frankly, she did, bless her, and she bobbed her way to Percy who started to make attempts to sitting up.

One good thing about numbing agents, they really really numbed. And that meant Percy wasn't feeling the nasty pain in his ribs. Whether that was good or not, he wasn't going to assume, but he was just glad he wasn't in pain.

After a few more minutes, the sounds of sirens continued to grow louder - what the h*ll was taking them so long - and Percy fully managed to sit up.

"Huzzah, and I rise!" he said as he grabbed Riptide who offered her assistance as he used her as a makeshift cane to use to struggle to stand as feeling came back to his legs. There was a sudden banging from the front of the house and what was probably the front door, and a loud shout of a voice that sounded beautifully familiar to Percy.

He heard the door slam open and a shocked yelp at what was probably the large body of Antaeus. "Percy! Jason! Where-"

"In the back, Wisegirl!" Percy called out before coughing immediately after. Sadly, he was starting to feel pain again and his ribs were starting to ache and throb. Percy looked at Jason, head lolled forward, bruises forming on the guy's face. Damn it, Luke, Percy thought with grit teeth. "Sorry, Jace, for getting you caught up like that." He heard thumping of feet and suddenly the lights to the room turned on, to which he was momentarily blinded from.

"Percy! Jason! Thank the gods you're alright!" Annabeth yelled and ran into the room, practically throwing herself on Percy who stood by Jason, which caused his knees to buckled and fall on top of poor Jason with Annabeth hugging the both of them.

Now, Percy would have loved the moment any other day, because shoot, he was being hugged by his crush (yeah, he admits it; those golden princess curls made his terrible-not-so-very-good day all the better, and her gray eyes were like medicine to the soul), but this particular day, his ribs were broken, he had been poisoned, and he basically almost impaled Annabeth with Riptide just now.

"Ow ow, I've got some broken ribs here, careful," Percy complained as Annabeth pushed herself off from their impromptu dogpile (with a knocked out Jason). Percy pointed to Jason. "And this guy's unconscious." Annabeth's eyes widened at both of the boy's appearances, before her sights moved to Luke who stayed still on the floor.

"So Luke..." she started, mouth in a grim line.

"Eh," Percy said, shrugging. "If I had to guess, he was planning to kidnap me and Jason-"

"Jason and I," Annabeth corrected causing Percy to raise his eyebrow at that, but continued nonetheless.

"-and take us to the Timeless because we're 'Olympians' apparently, and yeah, I'd love to be part of the Olympic swim team, but I mean, I'm not, so I don't know what he was talking about, but nevermind that," Percy cut himself off before he went on a tangent.

"If you want to know for sure, either ask the guy yourself, or ask Jason when he wakes up; they were fighting each other before I even knew they were in the house. I was busy beating Mr. 'I'm a pro wrestling champion who kills for fun!' with a curtain" he finished lamely. Way to go, Perce. Definitely impressed the lady with that awe inspiring description.

"A curtain and not your sword?" Annabeth asked with a raised brow.

Percy nodded in affirmation. "A curtain, not my sword." Percy shrugged before adding, "And what was up with the hugging all of a sudden? That wasn't very smart-bad-a$$-girl at all."

Annabeth raised her eyebrow again, and Percy wondered idly whether or not eyebrows could workout. "Well, I apologize if this 'smart-bad-a$$-girl' was worried to death about whether or not her friends were still alive and intact."

"Aw, we're friends?" Percy cooed jokingly.

"Shut up, Seaweed brain," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes with a glint of amusement behind them.

"I gladly will; I'm tired," Percy admitted as he sagged a bit. Annabeth giggled a bit at that and Percy grinned. He watched as her gaze turned yet again to Luke Castellan, mouth turning into a frown. Percy watched as her stormy gray eyes turned, well, clouded as she looked at her long been probably best friend. It amazed Percy how she was able to even hatch a plan against him in the first place, though, it didn't really work as expected. She really was a smart-bad-a$$ after all.

But right now, she was Annabeth Chase, the girl who lost a friend, a friend that she might not even had had, truly, since the beginning. And that was bound to hurt.

Percy sighed loudly, gaining her attention as the sirens blared outside, thumping boots and loud shouts echoing throughout the house. "Well, Wisegirl, bright side is is that I'm still alive to annoy you. Down side is I'm so tired, I'm probably gonna be napping in about thirty seconds. See ya later at a hospital or something?" Annabeth stared at him before her face softened. She smiled, and there wasn't a better sight in the world.

"Yeah," she said as his vision darkened, broken ribs and concussion catching up to him. "Thanks." And though he didn't know what she was thanking him for, he smiled back, as the voices of officers filled the room, and darkness overcame his vision.

DUDUN. Shoot. That fight ending was low key anticlimactic. Hope you guys don't...hate that? But hey, we got some solo-Riptide action, some stupid Luke beating, and some Percabeth!

I hope that made up for it, but if not, uh, please don't leave LOL, jk do whatever I can't control y'all, but there will be an epilogue of part one and then a part two coming up after this. Hope you enjoyed this and enjoy the future!

And if you didn't notice, Riptide is gaining some attitude! She's a growing sword LOL, let's see how she turns out in the end. Anywho, I know Blackjack didn't do much, and I'm sad about it too.

I was planning something, replanning, but it just didn't work out well for the plot. So, he'll be something to look forward to...a bit later. But I have some huge stuff planned for the pegasus.

Anywayyyyy, I'll respond to some reviews, and you can be on your way if you're not already!

Matt - you be reading my mind! Yeah, that's what I was planning (though for Nico I was also contemplating that skeleton chauffeur dude too haha)

ImTheOnlyFanBoyInTheWorld - well, the first part's last chap is the next one, so that's approximately twenty four chaps plus prologue and epilogue for part one, so I'm planning to make that the general length of each part (which would be three parts in total tentatively) so uhh math iss twenty times three so seventy eight ish chapters? Or a better estimate might be 85 ish, since the next to parts will probably be a bit longer than this first one.

Multifandom geekerello - meeeeee too. Lol, as I wrote this chap, I was like Mmmm Luke, can you lowkey just back off and disappear for a moment I need to calm down before I start to write again ahaha but yeah. Honestly, I wasn't planning to make him so hateable, but guess what, he is, and I sorta hate him now too. :D

YEAH so have a beautiful day!